A Beckenham man is facing 20 years behind bars after helping a UK Border Agency official try and smuggle £3.6 million worth of drugs into the country.

David Baker, 55, was jailed for 20 years and 115 days on charges relating to cocaine, heroin and firearms.

His smuggling attempts were watched by authorities in October 2017 after he drove from a Belgium hotel to a car park between Calais and Dunkirk before loading three bags into a Government van.

The van belonged to UK Border Agency official Simon Pellett, 37, who was jailed 23 years for his part in the plot.

The bags contained 6kg of heron, 34kg of cocaine, eight automatic pistols, two revolvers, three silencers and ammunition.

Alex Howard, 35, from Sittingbourne, kept lookout nearby and claimed he thought he was helping to smuggle cigarettes.

He received a lighter sentence of 10 years and 115 days.

"This was a major enterprise and the drugs had they pervaded the market would have caused untold misery," Judge Johnson said.

"The guns were desirable on account of their size, their firepower and the fact some were new.

"These weapons were the tools of the trade for those connected with the drug trade to protect their territories. I have no doubt they could have been used to maim or murder.”

Pellett had no prior convictions and was "gripped" by a gambling addiction and depression at the time of the plot, the court heard.

"It was an amalgamation of these things that led him to act so obviously out of character," his lawyer Nigel Lambert QC said in mitigation